John, for the companion carrier, do you recommend a horizontal top tube, and a relatively high one at that? The bike I have now that I'd mount it on has a low, sloping top tube (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ 25150...@n08/4439614745/) but if I bought a new bike for a grocery/kid hauler, I'd like to know what works best for the companion carrier or similar seats.
Cheers, Gernot On Mar 22, 3:57 am, John Speare <johnspe...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 9:30 AM, Glenn Ammons <glenn.amm...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 4:10 PM, Weird Harold <alanpcr...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > Any one tried the iBert? > > > That's what we use. It's great having my daughter right up front > > (although recently she's into whacking her head into my chest and > > giggling maniacally) and I can pedal normally without my knees hitting > > the seat. Standing is more of a challenge but doable with a bit of > > cooperation from my daughter. > > Our (now 7 year old) daughter has been on just about every type of kid > hauling except a trail-a-bike over the years. (We did try a trail a > bike once and neither of us liked it). > > She started out in a Burley solo when she was just over a year or so. > She never really liked it and by the time she was 2.5 years or so, she > just flat out refused to ride in it. Which makes sense when you think > about it: she's alone in a little cell and riding directly over the > axel of the cart, which makes for a pretty jarring ride. Since she > started so young, the novelity of being in a cart behind a bike never > really hit her. In fact, she looked forward to taking rides in the car > seat. > > When my daughter was about 3, my wife took her to Italy for a month to > visit with family -- while there, they bought a segilino -- a > front-mount seat:http://johndogfood.com/john/reduced/06-12-06%20051.jpg > > That was always my daughter's favorite solution. She loved it and so > did my wife. Mainly because it was a much more active role: she can > see where she's going, she can do hand signals, ring the bell, and > chat with mom. The American versions of the same solution are > unfortunately much less elegant and way over-built in my opinon. > > From there, we got a companion carrier -- which mounts directly to the > top tube and therefore holds more weight. > pics here --http://johndogfood.com/john/mb2.html > We enjoyed trail riding and my daughter would still ride on this if I > let her. But she's got to go under her own power now... ;unless we're > tooling around locally to breakfast or something, then I'll give her a > quick free ride on the front of my cargo > truck:http://cyclingspokane.blogspot.com/2010/02/kid-haulin.html > > We tried a rear-mount seat but didn't like it at all. I found that > having dynamic weight that high above the rear wheel behind me was > distracting and my daughter wasn't crazy about staring at the back of > my helmet. > > She rode on the deck of our xtracycle too -- for short trips, but she > was never hugley crazy about that either. A friend of mine borrowed my > xtracycle for a couple years and his kids loved riding on the deck -- > so it may work for some kids. Hauling kids on the deck of a long bike > is pretty effortless for tooling around. > > When my daughter was about 4 or 5, we got a Bike Friday tandem. That > ruled. And we rode it for a couple years. We did bike camping on it, > and we commuted to her preschool every day. Pics > here:http://johndogfood.com/john/BF.html > > Now my daughter prefers to ride her own bike. The tandem was great but > took up way too much room in our small garage for how infrequently we > rode it. > > The net for me was that when she was young enough, the front-mount > seat was great. It's a shame that smaller/less complicated/less turdy > front-seat-solutions are so hard to find in the American market. In my > opinion, the big honking plastic molded car-seat looking seats that > are sold here are just overbuilt and too big for the task at hand. > > The companion carrier can be found with google searching and phone > calling though. > > John Speare > Spokane, WA USAhttp://cyclingspokane.blogspot.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
